Camera Obscura
Evidence in Camera. By Constance Babington Smith. Foreword by Lord Tedder. (Chatto and Windus, 18s.)
A READER might suspect at first glance that Evidence in Camera was nothing more than a
conventional and pious success story. It is only natural that war books should, in the main, be influenced by the spirit of comradeship; and such
spirit is not always conducive to historical accuracy. Evidence in Camera proves to be a surprising exception. It is the story- of "photo- graphic intelligence in the Second World War, told by one who worked during the war with British and Allied interpretation units. It is a story in which celebrated airmen and backroom boys and girls are involved; it also deals with major questions of techniques of war, the organ- isation of the Services and the natural conflicts which arise between rival commands.
One can enjoy this book in two ways. It is a very good story about men like Sydney Cotton, 'Shorty Longbottom,' Peter Riddel, Michael Suck- ling, Adrian Warburton and others of equal significance, but perhaps of lesser fame. From this viewpoint, the book is a conventional record; it is unconventional by virtue of the intelligent, genuine and honest manner in which it is written. From another viewpoint the book is unusually valuable in its exposition of the difficulties with which new units and novel attitudes had to con- tend in the early years of the last war.
Sir Frank Whittle, in his book Jet, had already pointed out how more progress in jet experimenta- tion had been achieved by unofficial channels on a capital sum of a few thousand pounds than had been achieved by larger organisations working with much more numerous personnel with immensely superior capital resources. Professor Jewkes has frequently emphasised the qualitative advantages of small-scale independent operations in contrast with the activities of the bureaucracies of business or of government in scientific and inventive techniques. And study of the activities of Sydney Cotton and Fred Winterbotham in 1938 and 1939, as well as of members of a relatively unknown firm, the Aircraft Operating Company, should be made obligatory for all con- cerned with the application of scientific advances to either government or business expansion. It is also a relief to hear that some official quarters, before the war, encouraged the 'unofficial mis- sions' of Cotton and Winterbotham in Germany. Miss Babington Smith does not, indeed, mention that Winterbotham was highly regarded by Alfred Rosenberg in his capacity as chief of the foreign political office of the NSDAP, or that he and the editorial personnel of Aeroplane figured from time to time in the private papers of Rosenberg, as revealed at Nurenberg. They certainly seem to have done an effective job in deceiving the some- what naive anglophiles around Hitler.
Miss Babington Smith very openly discusses the controversies with Bomber Command, which delayed for so long acceptance of the researches of photographic reconnaissance. And reading between the lines, it is easy to see the underlying hostility between the conceptions of her unit, with its inevitable emphasis on precision bombing, and those of Sir Arthur Harris, whose views, re-
grettably, dominated the strategy of air warfare over a lengthy period. There is plenty of adven' ture in this book, at all points there is common sense; and in addition it is an exciting account of the combination of historical, archaeological and optical techniques, as applied to modern war. The author was naturally labouring under impede ments imposed by the Official Secrets Act. Despite this obstacle she has succeeded in giving a verY clear picture of the general development of photographic warfare, and of some of the weak- nesses of system and personalities. And all of this should be of use in future contingencies.
The chapter on 'The Battle against the V' weapons' is a most interesting account of this vital episode in a race for time between Hitler and the West. The weakest chapter is probably that concerned with Combined Operations between United States and British forces. One wonders, IB fact, if Miss Babington Smith here has pulled her punches in her descriptions of the contribution of that very controversial person Colonel Elliot Roosevelt, not to mention the general question of American co-operation in this field.
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